Blank Check with Griffin & David: Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson

Published 2016-03-07; 1:47:21 by the feed.

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

The extraction calls the show “Blank Check with Griffin & David” and the episode “Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson”.

Hosts: Griffin Newman, David Sims. Guests: Richard Lawson.

Subject films: Lady in the Water (2006).

On the transcript: The transcript is machine-generated with many mangled names and garbled lines; ad reads (Video Game Town, Audible Dracula, MUBI, Explore Harrisburg, Kenders HVAC) are baked in and skipped. Speaker attribution is inferred; several lines are low confidence.

Films that came up

Claims (43)

theme (plot parallel): Lady in the Water → Manchester by the Sea. A man loses his family in a past tragedy and becomes the super of a building, which the speaker notes as the same plot.
“In all caps, I wrote, this is the plot of Manchester by the Sea.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:22:20 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
people (performance benchmark): Colin Firth → The King's Speech. Colin Firth's stutter is held up as the only film stutter that felt accurate, unlike Giamatti's.
“It was kind of the only stutter in film history that felt like, oh, that seems pretty accurate.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:24:22 · Richard Lawson (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (muse): Bryce Dallas Howard → M. Night Shyamalan. Howard is called Shyamalan's muse, though he never worked with her again after two films.
“never worked with ever again after 2 films established as his muse.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:25:24 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (structural echo): Lady in the Water → The Village. The cast-intro structure, where each character gets one cartoonish trait up front, works like The Village, except The Village is involving.
“sort of in the same way that the village works, except the village is involving.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:36:19 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (exposition overload): Lady in the Water → Star Wars prequels / The Phantom Menace. Both have stretches of invented-terminology exposition that never sink in.
“We talked about there was a phenomenon that would occur in that movie in those movies where like a stretch of dialogue is so much fucking nonsense information.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:38:49 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
people (actor identification): David Ogden Stiers → Better Off Dead. The narrator is recognized as the dad from Better Off Dead.
“David Ogden Styre. The dad from Better Off Dead.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:41:40 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career context): Paul Giamatti → Sideways. Lady in the Water was the first thing Giamatti booked after Sideways, his big lead after that breakthrough.
“I think this is the first thing he booked after sideways.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:44:59 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career context): Paul Giamatti → Cinderella Man. Between Sideways and Lady in the Water he made Cinderella Man and got an Oscar nomination.
“In between he had made Cinderella Man and gotten his Oscar nomination.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:45:04 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (critic portrayal): Lady in the Water → Birdman. Birdman's film critic is called more sensitive and three-dimensional than Balaban's critic in Lady in the Water.
“Inaritu's portrayal of a film critic in Birdman is sensitive and three-dimensional compared to Bob Paliban in this, right?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:48:41 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (critic portrayal): Lady in the Water → Godzilla. Ranks directors who put film critics in their movies to shit on them, with Godzilla's Mayor Ebert gag, then Birdman, then Lady in the Water.
“I go Godzilla, then Birdman, or the unexpected virtue.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:49:36 · Richard Lawson (0.40 sure it was them)
people (cinematography): Christopher Doyle → Lady in the Water. Doyle shot the film beautifully and makes very few American movies.
“Beautifully filmed by Christopher Doral.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:50:18 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Christopher Doyle → Wong Kar-wai. Doyle is named as the regular cinematographer of a director the transcript renders as 'Long car wise' (Wong Kar-wai), and called one of the great DPs who rarely makes American movies.
“Long car wise, regular cinematographer, one of the great DPs for sure.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:50:26 · Richard Lawson (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career context): Bryce Dallas Howard → Manderlay. Howard made Manderlay between The Village and Lady in the Water, after Denmark.
“She dumb Mandalay in between this and the village.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:54:37 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career context): Bryce Dallas Howard → Spider-Man 3. Howard booked Spider-Man 3 before Lady in the Water came out.
“I think she booked Spider-Man 3 before this came out.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:54:57 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
theme (plot comparison): Lady in the Water → The Lorax. A creature living in a tree stump who kicks herself in the behind and flies to the sky is likened to the Lorax.
“She was like, the Lorax.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:00:55 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (shared creature designer): Crash McCreery → Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. The monkey creatures in Lady in the Water were designed by the man who did the monster pirates (Davy Jones's crew) in Dead Man's Chest.
“These creatures were designed by Crash Macreri, who also did all the monster pirates in the 2nd Pirates of the Caribbean movie.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:10:02 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
craft (visual comparison): Lady in the Water → The Chronicles of Narnia. As Story weakens her color drains until she resembles Tilda Swinton in Narnia.
“By the end, she's Tilda Swinton in Narnia.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:14:19 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (scene echo): Lady in the Water → The Poseidon Adventure. Cleveland's underwater swim is likened to Shelley Winters's pool swim in The Poseidon Adventure.
“And I wrote down Shelley Winters and Poseidon Adventure.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:14:45 · Richard Lawson (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (backstory echo): Lady in the Water → Unbreakable. Cleveland Heep's murdered family backstory is likened to the crime in Unbreakable.
“much like the crime and unbreakable.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:15:15 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (scene echo): Lady in the Water → The Last of the Mohicans. Relaying the myth through third-hand translation is compared to the Last of the Mohicans scene of language relay.
“It's like the scene in the Last of the Mohicans where Daniel Day-Louis has to have the British guys speak French to the Native Americans who only speak French.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:16:46 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (worldbuilding contrast): Lady in the Water → Harry Potter (the films). Proposes the invented terms would be easier if the story were a known fable, since J.K. Rowling's invented vocabulary was learned by audiences.
“Like, he was just like, oh, J.K. Rowling did it.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:18:00 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (wanted to direct): M. Night Shyamalan → Harry Potter (the films). Shyamalan always said he wanted to direct a Harry Potter movie.
“he wanted to direct a Harry Potter movie.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:18:04 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
people (critic casting irony): Bob Balaban → M. Night Shyamalan. A filmmaker getting back at critics casts Balaban, the actor critics love as their on-screen surrogate.
“Bob Bellaman is like the ultimate film critics actor.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:21:19 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (meta monologue): Lady in the Water → Scream. Balaban's speech about what a PG-13 movie will not show is compared to a Kevin Williamson-style monologue from Scream.
“Bob Bellman giving a Kevin Williamson style monologue.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:25:04 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (joke comparison): Lady in the Water → The Revenant. Jokes that Hugh Glass in The Revenant was really attacked by a scrunt.
“I didn't like the revenant because in real life, Hugh Glass was attacked by a scrunt.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:25:38 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (title joke): Lady in the Water → The Lady in the Van. Lady in the Van is almost as hard to follow as Lady in the Water.
“Lady in the van is almost as hard to follow Lady in the water.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:26:33 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (answering critics): M. Night Shyamalan → The Village. A scene where a character is outraged that the critic presumed to know his motives is read as Shyamalan reacting to critics of The Village.
“this is M. Night Shyaman being like, don't tell me what my motivations were for making the village.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:28:06 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Christopher Doyle → Lady in the Water. After calling the party scene illegible and boggling to follow, the speaker jokes that the cinematographer's own habits explain why the film is hard to follow.
“But in his defense, the reason's so hard to follow is because Christopher Doyle was having sex with a black woman and being arrested while they were.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:32:10 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (creature design): Lady in the Water → Signs. The scrunt is held up as a better-shot, better-designed, better-reflection creature that makes good on the sins of the Signs alien.
“I think the scrunt, he shoots better, designs better, does the reflection thing better.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:33:16 · Richard Lawson (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (ending comparison): Lady in the Water → Signs. Both end abruptly on one image after someone heals a body through prayer or love, with only a token time jump.
“Because signs does the same thing where it just ends.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:33:45 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
people (typecast skill): Jeffrey Wright → Source Code. Wright is praised for selling pseudo-technical jargon, like the source code of Source Code.
“they're good at kind of spouting like stuff about, like, the source code, like, and you're just like, okay, sure.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:34:43 · Richard Lawson (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (recurring theme): Lady in the Water → Signs. Shyamalan films all center on men who neglect family for work and on crises of faith; here the man loses his family entirely.
“all in my trauma films are crisis of faith movies, right?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:36:26 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
career (career arc): Lady in the Water → The Village. The Village was the first real backlash, and Lady in the Water is cast as the film that dynamited his career.
“the village marks something of a turning point because it's when the kind of the bloom fell off the rose”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:38:41 · Richard Lawson (0.60 sure it was them)
unmapped (commissioned chronicler): M. Night Shyamalan → Michael Bamberger. Shyamalan hired a writer to follow him around and document the making, which became The Man Who Heard Voices.
“I'm going to hire you to follow me around and write the entire process of how an M.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:40:32 · Richard Lawson (0.40 sure it was them)
people (falling out): M. Night Shyamalan → Nina Jacobson. Shyamalan left Disney reportedly because Jacobson did not read the script immediately and then did not like it.
“Disney's president of development, Nina Jacobson, took her son to a party instead of staying home to read the script for lady in the water.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:41:12 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
industry (same weekend): Lady in the Water → Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Pirates was number one on Lady in the Water's opening weekend, with Cars in the mix.
“Number one was still Pirates of the Caribbean.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:43:19 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (same weekend): Lady in the Water → Monster House. Monster House opened to 22 million versus Lady's 18 million on the same weekend.
“That opened to 22 and lady opened to 18 mil.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:43:37 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (pitched remake setting): Lady in the Water → Tin Cup. A golf-course version with a lake and a caddy is pitched as basically Tin Cup.
“So it's tin cup, basically.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:44:42 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (pitched remake setting): Lady in the Water → Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. A pirate ship setting is pitched for the story because of that summer's Pirates.
“How about on a pirate ship?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:45:08 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (film about filmmaking): Lady in the Water → Inception. Griffin reads Lady in the Water as Shyamalan's Inception, with the crew roles standing for the collaborative filmmaking process.
“I think he confirmed it, that Inception was Christopher Nolan's film about filmmaking.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:47:07 · Griffin Newman (0.80 sure it was them)
people (casting analogy): Marion Cotillard → M. Night Shyamalan. In the Inception-as-filmmaking read, Cotillard stands in for Shyamalan.
“Marian Cotiard is M. Night Shyamalan.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:47:30 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
unmapped (next episode): Lady in the Water → The Happening. The Happening is next, with James Urbaniak as guest; Griffin calls it his least favorite.
“will be our guest for the happening, which is the one that he special requested as well.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:52:42 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career after): Lady in the Water → The Last Airbender. Notes that Shyamalan bounced back after the flop, with The Last Airbender coming.
“I haven't seen the last Airbender.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:53:00 · Richard Lawson (0.40 sure it was them)

Fun items (23)

fun, about Michael Shannon: David saw Michael Shannon eating a burger with a bunch of kids at Moo Burger, the first entry in the new Burger Report segment; Griffin followed with seeing Chivo Lubezki at Apple Pan.
“Oscar nominee, Michael Shannon, eating with a bunch of kids and a couple of adults eating his own bird.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:07:33 · David Sims (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about Emmanuel Lubezki: Griffin spotted three-time Oscar-winning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki eating a burger with his parents at Apple Pan in Los Angeles, and calls him Marty rather than Chivo.
“Three time, a historic and historic, three time Academy Award winner for best cinematography, consecutive awards. Emmanuel Labesky.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:10:21 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about Kanye West: Richard worked at the Spotted Pig and served Kanye West, who sent back a burger because he wanted it more well done and was upset blue cheese was the only cheese.
“He never looked at me once, but he ordered a couple of drinks and he ordered a burger. He sent the burger back.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:12:48 · Richard Lawson (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest: Griffin spent a month arguing at an NYU summer program that Pirates 2 made no sense, then realized years later he had slept through 15 minutes of it.
“I realized 2 years later when I saw it on cable that I'd fallen asleep for 15 minutes”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:19:36 · Griffin Newman (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about Lady in the Water: Other kids at Griffin's NYU summer program saw it and came back to the cafeteria yelling snarf, snarf, snarf, mocking the film.
“At the cafeteria, they were going snarf, snarf, snarf, snarf.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:20:20 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about Paul Giamatti: Giamatti's stutter appears from his second line, as he fixes a sink with the line about broken tiles.
“And they start the stutter at line two.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:23:17 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Bob Balaban: Balaban's film critic is called the least sympathetic character ever put on film, with Nazis portrayed more even-handedly.
“I've seen Nazis who are portrayed on film in a more even-handed manner than this character.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:26:25 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Lady in the Water: Shyamalan demanded the set be within 45 minutes of his Pennsylvania home and timed the trip at 43 minutes; the whole apartment complex and pool were built for the film at a Levittown warehouse site.
“Shamalan demanded that the set be within 45 minutes of his Pennsylvania home.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:45:24 · Griffin Newman (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about Lady in the Water: An IMDb trivia fact claims 9 across could not touch 27 down in the crossword Mr. Dury does, since it would need to be 19 letters long.
“It would have to be at least 19 layers long to do so.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:46:53 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about Christopher Doyle: Doyle is quoted as saying you cannot make a movie unless you've slept with a black woman and spent a night in jail; the hosts riff on it as the reason the party scene is illegible.
“a man who has said that you cannot make a movie unless you've slept with a black woman and spent a night in jail.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:50:31 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Cindy Cheung: Per trivia, her agent demanded one million dollars for her role while Shyamalan wanted to pay SAG minimum of 65,000; they settled at 100,000.
“They settled for $100,000.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:55:46 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about Lady in the Water: Shyamalan's wish list for supporting roles reportedly included Pacino, De Niro, Gene Wilder, Sidney Poitier, Vince Vaughn, Alec Baldwin and more, all men.
“Gene Wilder.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:00:10 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about Philip Seymour Hoffman: Hoffman loved the script and the role but had a scheduling conflict.
“Hoffman, despite the fact, get ready to cry, that he, quote, loved the script, liked the role, had scheduling conflict.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:01:57 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about Paul Giamatti: The milk mustache scene: Giamatti rolls on a couch with milk on his beard to seem innocent for the grandmother, and the amount of milk changes between cuts.
“the amount of milk on his mustache changes per every time they cut”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:04:26 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Lady in the Water: Cleveland sees a book called The Cookbook, panics that it is a cookbook, and the misdirect resolves 85 seconds later.
“That happens 85 seconds after the idea was set up.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:12:36 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about M. Night Shyamalan: In the Return-of-Kings joke, the cookbook's prediction is that Ghostbusters would be remade with an all-female cast.
“Yeah, he predicts in the book that 10 years hence, Ghostbusters will be remade with an all female cast.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:13:44 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Bob Balaban: Balaban's critic, the next victim, delivers a meta monologue noting that in a movie with no explicit content they will not actually show someone murdered on camera.
“They will not actually let someone be murdered on camera.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:24:51 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Tovah Feldshuh: Mrs. Bubchik's husband is always on the toilet in a bathroom door that is simultaneously soundproof and not; he turns out to be the man with no secrets.
“Tova Felcher's husband, because he's constantly shitting.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:30:29 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan: Griffin had an acting job in the mockumentary that was almost entirely cut out, and cashed a 150 dollar check he was told was SAG minimum.
“That was my 1st acting job that was almost entirely cut out.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:40:07 · Griffin Newman (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about The Man Who Heard Voices: The book on the making of the film records that Shyamalan left Disney when Nina Jacobson took her son to a party instead of reading the script he had couriered to her.
“Shamlon had it personally couriered to her and had insult to injury.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:41:22 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Lady in the Water: Opened to 18 million, number three behind Pirates of the Caribbean and Monster House, and finished with 42 million domestic, 72 worldwide.
“It ended up with a grand total of $42 million, 72 worldwide.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:43:40 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Richard Lawson: Richard downloaded the movie for four dollars and, never having done so before, thought the download was skipping scenes because he could not follow it.
“But I thought that I had done something wrong and the movie was skipping scenes because I could not follow this.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:46:43 · Richard Lawson (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about Inception: Griffin's read: Inception as Nolan's movie about filmmaking, which maps to Lady in the Water, with a team of specialized roles saving a woman named Story.
“This is a movie in which a woman whose name is story is like has to be saved and protected and carried off into the sky by a whole team of people”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:48:27 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)

Who's talking

Griffin Newman (host): Loves ambitious, misguided, disastrous failures and admits a near sexual fetish for them; gravitates toward films that are naked and transparent about their director's ego. Cannot stand being unable to follow exposition but still wants to rewatch. A sucker for Shyamalan trivia, mythology worldbuilding critique, and the film-about-filmmaking read.
David Sims (host): A working film critic who respects the filmmaking craft but is unforgiving of incoherence; likes actors like Bob Balaban and Jeffrey Wright and notices careful details like casting and release data. Cannot stand a film he finds unwatchable or toxic, as with My Old Lady. A sucker for box office numbers and critic-baiting trivia.
Richard Lawson (guest): A Vanity Fair film critic who is a self-described Luddite and big M. Night guy who had hated The Village at the time and now likes it more on rewatch. Finds the film bafflingly hard to follow yet admires its naked ego; likes the scrunt design. A sucker for a director's trauma and for cinematographer lore.

The show's recurring bits

The box office game: Guessing the film's opening weekend and what it was up against.
The sung theme: "Blank Check with Griffin and David", sung; the transcriber garbles it.

Names the transcriber got wrong

Right Jack / Right Jack with Griffin and David / black chat = Blank Check
Am Night Shyamalan / MITronon / Shamlon / Chumlin / Emite / M. Knight Shawan = M. Night Shyamalan
Lucy Lou = Lucy Liu
Vanny Fair / Vanity Ferris = Vanity Fair; Grayden Carter's wig = Graydon Carter
Emmanuel Labesky = Emmanuel Lubezki
Ken Lernergan / Ken Ken Lernergan / Lonerkin = Kenneth Lonergan
Christopher Doral = Christopher Doyle
Crash Macreri = Crash McCreery
Serena Troudery / Sarita Chowdery / Sarita Shhatter = Sarita Choudhury
Anna Ran = Anna Ran (character), Vic ran = Vick Ran
Cindy Chung = Cindy Cheung; Yung Soon Choi = Young-Soon Choi
Freddie Rodriguez = Freddy Rodriguez
Tova Feldcher / Tova Felcher / Tofelch = Tovah Feldshuh
Noah Gray Cabay = Noah Gray-Cabey
Mary Beth Hurt = Mary Beth Hurt (fine)
Stellen Scargard = Stellan Skarsgard
Joss Hutcherson = Josh Hutcherson
Marlon Wayne's = Marlon Wayans
Inaritu = Inarritu; Lindsey Duncan = Lindsay Duncan
Colin Evans, Godzilla = Roland Emmerich (Godzilla); Mayor Ebert and Aide Siskel = Mayor Ebert and Gene (Godzilla)
Dick Hook = Dick Cook; Nina Jacobson (correct)
Wonsonobi = Ken Watanabe; Marian Cotiard = Marion Cotillard
Poker Cats = Thundercats
Narf / Nerf / Nerves = Narf; Tartuic = Tartutic; Coco Pelly = Kokopelli; Qdoba
Bob Bellman / Paliban / Baliban = Bob Balaban
Cleveland Deep / Heap = Cleveland Heep
Sit and Nancy = Sid and Nancy
Amanda Bidens = Amanda Bynes
Kevin Klein = Kevin Kline; Manderlay spelled Mandalay
Libertyville and Levittown, Pennsylvania used loosely; 2016 July should read 2006
James Or Baniac = James Urbaniak; JD Amada = unknown

Blank Check with Griffin & David: Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

Films that came up

subject (1)

compared (16)

passing (28)

anecdote (3)

dismissed (4)

Claims (43)

Fun items (23)

Who's talking

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong